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How can you fuel connections that matter? I get that question a lot from salon pros, who seem to be looking constantly for ways to harness social media and figure out where their brands and clients fit in. That’s why I wanted to share some insight from Nicole Partise, social media manager at Dermalogica and The International Dermal Institute, who, like me, knows first-hand the importance of utilizing this medium in the professional beauty marketplace. Here are a few of Partise’s tips, which will help beauty pros connect the dots and increase their social media effectiveness.

Get Social: The term social media applies to new media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs, among others. Users of these sites create and engage in online communities to share information, thoughts, photos, videos and other content. Whereas traditional media once kept companies in charge of their brand’s or business’ reputation and communication, new media puts the messaging in charge of the consumer.

Create Social Media Pages: There’s an endless amount of social media outlets, so choose wisely and select top ones like Facebook, Yelp, Twitter and Instagram that give you the most visibility when starting out.

Put a Face on Your Business: Heighten your visibility on Facebook by clicking “Create a Page for a celebrity, brand or business,” then choose “Local Business or Place.” You’ll be guided along as you set up your page. Bear in mind that you need a personal page in order to manage a business page. Once your page is finished, personalize it by adding a profile and cover photo, contact information, hours of operation and so on. You can also post beauty and product tips and share photos and videos of your space.

All the Buzz: You’ll likely encounter one of two scenarios when visiting yelp.com, a site that connects people with local businesses. You’ll be able to create a Yelp page for your business or you may find that someone else has already started one. Should the latter occur, claim the page. Once you’re set up, you can then encourage clients to write reviews so that new prospects can see how wonderful you are. If you happen to get a bad review, reach out to the client and amend the situation.

Tweet, Tweet: After setting up a page on twitter.com, begin personalizing it. Remember that a username, or handle, means using the @ symbol in front of your name. If you want to directly speak to or support another page, use @ before their username rather than their username alone (i.e. @Dermalinstitute vs. Dermalinstitute). A hashtag is the # symbol, placed in front of a word (i.e. #acne). When you hashtag a word (#acne), it groups your tweet with others that include the same hashtag, increasing the chance of visibility.

Show and Tell: After registering and choosing a username and appropriate profile picture on Instagram, a photo-sharing app accessible through mobile devices, begin broadcasting photos of your salon space, product lines, or events you’ve hosted. Best of all, link your photos to your Facebook and Twitter pages. For more information, I’d say call me, but why don’t you tweet me instead.